Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now there is quite a bit happening around the place
as we know at this point in time, and joining
me in the studio as he does most Wednesday mornings
is indeed Travis wis the Assistant Commissioner of the Greater
Darwin Region and Road Safety in Support within the Northern
Territory Police. Good morning to your assistant commissioner.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning Katie, Good morning to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Now, first off, this morning, we do know, in what
is an incredibly terribly tragic situation, that investigations are underway
into the death of a toddler at a rural childcare
center in Humpty Dew. At this point in time, is
there much that you can tell us in terms of
that investigation other.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Than it been an absolute tragedy for the family and
those exposed to this particular event. Fortunately, that young person
of child passed away. The matter is currently being investigative
investigated by our detectives on behalf of the coroner. Unfortunately,
there's not a great deal more than I can say
other than at this stage the work is still underway
(01:02):
in relation to the determined cause of death, but it
hopefully will be non suspicious.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And I've no doubt that when we do have some
further detail, we'll be able to provide that to our listeners. Now,
Assistant Commissioner, I do want to ask you about well,
an attempted sexual assault that occurred at Casarina. Now, the
Northern Territory Police have charged demand as I understand it,
with attempted sexual assault after an incident at the shopping
(01:28):
center in Casarina on Friday last week. Now, the twenty
two year old has been arrested or was arrested by
police shortly after being confronted by a member of the
public and has since been charged with attempted sexual assault,
aggravated assault as well as unlawful stalking. As I understand it,
(01:49):
he's been reminded to appear in the Darwin Local Court
until the twenty fifth of October. Now, Assistant Commissioner, some
in the community asking why was this informa you know,
not sort of made clear to the public on Friday
when it happened in terms of that community safety.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So for your listeners, the first element to this is
the fact that this is extremely serious matter that occurred
at that location. It was reported to police and almost
immediately that person was taken to police custody. We had
police on the scene within moments of it actually been reported,
So there was a member of the public as also
(02:32):
instrumental in alerting police to who that person wasn't taking
that person to custody. So for this particular instance, we
thank the community for their support in making sure that
person was apprehended that immediately took that concern, that that
threat away from that particular environment. The aspect around releasing
(02:53):
this information into the community. So there are two parts
to this. One is the sensitivity and the need to
protect the victim in this particular matter. But the other
element of this is, and I've done significant digging in
relation to why there wasn't some information there allbeit potential
(03:14):
but particularly scant detail to say we'd take some of
the custody.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's in essence an.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Oversight on behalf of our agency to not get that
information released. It was nothing more than an oversight and
a communication breakdown about getting that information to where it
needed to go to be released to the public. No more,
no less. We accept that we could have done better
in that space. All the people who were involved in
have all been spoken to and will make sure that
(03:43):
we do better in the future. It was just simply
an oversight. The public deserve to know, and we'll do
that in a particular way so that all those sensitivities
are managed and the public is kept informed about those
sorts of matters.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Because it is like it is a really difficult juggle
I would imagine for the police in the sense that
you want to make sure that the victim is protected
in every way that she possibly can be, but you
also want to make sure that no other person, you know,
is put in a dangerous situation. I understand that that
offender has been taken, you know, taken away very quickly
(04:18):
and apprehended very quickly. But I know myself, I frequent
the shopping center very regularly. I know that young you know,
I like this so often. My daughter's friends are these
young girls at the center very often, And you don't
want it to be a situation where somebody could potentially then.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Be put in any kind of harm.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I agree entirely.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And unfortunately, there are a very very small proportion of
our population that don't adhere to norms within our society,
and they do things like that that require the full
force of the law to be applied, As was the
case in this instance, that person's on raman. That takes
that person out of circulation, so to speak, and that
(05:00):
gives the community some solace in relation to the safety
that is ensured by having this person behind bars.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
But so from this point on it does sound as
though it is the intention of the Northern Territory Police
to make sure that the public are aware. We don't
need all the detail, but that we are aware if
there is a threas or if there is a situation
like this unfold.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
We always do.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
There has been the odd occasion in the past where
it's been focused upon, but it's our intention to ensure
that the media, through the media, sorry that the public
are informed. Public are an important they're our stakeholder if effectively,
we the police police the community and we're there to
support the community. So we need to be able to
make sure that they are fully informed. And on this occasion,
(05:44):
it didn't quite occur the way we would have hoped.
As I've said, managing the sensitivities around this particular matter
against that need to inform the public.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
We need to balance the two.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Now, Assistant Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Unfortunately, we've had a few calls on messages come through
over recent days about different incidents occurring at Casuarina. We
did have somebody get in contact with us and say
that a security guard had been assaulted at kmart, But
do you have at this point in time, do you
sort of have any information on that.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So I was aware of that particular question, and we've
done significant digging and haven't unearthed anything in the recent
past at that particular location. I do know that there
was an incident that involved a number of young people
that sort of started in the center and moved all
the way through the center and out the other side
toward the bus interchange.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Security guard was assaulted.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
In that particular circumstance, there was a couple of young
people who were assaulted by a group as a consequence
of that. I can inform your listeners that there were
seven young people involved. One was under the age of
criminal responsibility. Six others were all arrested under the age
of sixteen. We had two of those remarded in custom,
(07:00):
the one was released to be diverted using the youth
diversion provisions, and three others were granted bail.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
So was that like a fight or an assault that
it occurred, No.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It was it was a targeted attack on a young
person within the facility where some of his personal belongings
were taken from him, a robbery in essence. Is he
okay well physically yes, He's obviously been cared for by
family and his school is aware of the circumstances and
providing him additional support as well.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
So what day did that happen? That was over the weekend?
Was it?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I think it was Friday? Lass work?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Okay, So it sounds like it wasn't a good day
out there on Friday. Is there like at this point
in time, are there additional resources or are they additional
police sort of patrolling the Casuarina area to you know,
to try to calm things down to some degree.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So the response that's been developed and this was being
worked on last week is not one that is just
police centric. Young people who should be at school need
to be engaged and taken back into the education space. Yeah,
there is some public safety aspects that require a policing response.
Territory families and the Youth Outreach Engagement Team are involved
(08:17):
as well. We're engaging with casual and a Square security
to make sure we've got coordination. There are other security
service providers that are also being brought into the space,
so it's not just within the facility itself, it's all
the public spaces outside of CASU in a square that
we're placing some focus around as well.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Alcohol is a key.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Driver of the harm and the any social behavior that's
caused there, so we're doing our best to manage that
as well. We've got to be careful here. We focus
heavily on that area. We cause displacement, so we're still
focusing heavily on return to country for those that are
living rough and they need to get out of their circumstance.
We're still managing to return about one hundred people or
so a week into from Darwin and back into their
(09:03):
community environments, which is great. But people are still continuing
to come back into Darla as well, so it's a
constant management process. We've got the Territory Community Safety Coordination
Center that's sitting at the heart of this, that's working
closely with my team around making sure that all of
our efforts are well coordinated and we're actually maximizing the
(09:25):
small finite resource pool that we all have to be
able to put them in the right places at the
right time, so I.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Mean one hundred people a week back to community. It's
quite a large volume of people, isn't.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It's been as high as one hundred and ninety and
give or take. But it's still the collective effort across
that whole government and NGO group to be able to
get those people home. It's an ongoing effort that won't stop,
and it's focusing on people who are camping in particular locations.
I know in Palmerston there's camps that people are concerned about.
(09:55):
Regularly we go in dismantle those and turn those people
to a better living scenario, whether they be home or
somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Some of the people, unfortunately still just choose to live rough.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Now. I know that, you know, I know that you
obviously look after the Greater Darwin region. But one area
at the moment that does seem to be having some
real issues and it has I guess for a little
while is the pepper Manati community. Now, I understand the
Commissioner visited the community yesterday and again I say, I
know that, I know it's not you know, you are
(10:26):
Greater Darwin, but I would imagine that sometimes some of
these issues not only occur in the community, but flow
on to areas like Darwin. How are things going in
Peppy right now? And did that visit from the Commissioner help.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So there was obviously an incident that occurred the night
prior out at Peerpermnati that required a police response. As
a consequence of that response to family tensions in the community,
the police were there was some targeted activity towards the
police from the community. Police withdrew that our response was
to provide additional resource in the community that included some
(11:01):
tactical response staff, some investigators as well as some other
frontline resources. The Commissioner also went out and visited the community,
spoke to obviously the police who were on the ground,
as well as some of the community members. We're providing
an ongoing supportive response to that community as well as
investigating the criminal activity that occurred. Yes, there is some
(11:22):
flow and effect into Greater Dalen from time to time.
We know from past displacement activity that some of that
has moved into Dalen. We're monitoring that there's constant flows
of information from that West Daily region into our team
in Darwen so that we can actually manage some of
what occurs if people were to come into town. I mean,
(11:43):
I still ask and I know that people are taking
extra steps to manage some of their vehicles at the moment.
I have friends who own older model highlights or land
cruises and they're actually disabling their cars or putting steering
locks on. Now, I know that's bottom of the cliff stuff,
but there are the steps that people need to take
at the moment because there are a group of people
(12:06):
that are able to target those vehicles easily easy to
get into and unfortunately easy to start.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So we saw a couple of them stolen earlier in
the week or on the weekend as well, didn't we out.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
From the rural area.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, there was one in town particularly, and there was
a couple in the rural area. The one in town
was located when three people were arrested. The fourteen year
old was driving and there was two twenty year old
females in that car. A coordinated effort from all of
our frontline resources managed to bring that vehicle under control
using tiderflation devices and those people were arrested. The other
(12:41):
vehicles have since been recovered, one in the rural area
and two others out at a location in the West
Daily area. There was another vehicle style from Bachelor as
well that was also recovered out of that way.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So that vehicle theft is still a bit of an issue.
But as you've said, if you've got an older model vehicle, unfortunately,
this is the point we're at at the moment where
you do need to take those extra measures to try
to make sure that it's not getting taken.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Look, I wish that I didn't have to pass that
messaging onto the community, but realistically, please I ask if
you've got you've got the means to be able to
disable your car and or buy a steering lock. You
can still get them from the super cheaps and those
sorts of places. There are another tool to prevent your
vehicle hopefully being stolen. I do know there was a
(13:28):
car style and didn't have a steering lock on it.
The car didn't get very far. There was some damage caused,
but at least that vehicle has been recovered.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Wow. Yeah, now, Assistant Commissioner, we will keep it brief
because I've got the federal Minister on the line at
the moment, but I do want to ask, because you
did you brought one in for me? You brought one
of the spit shields in because you and I have
spoken about these on numerous occasions, they've been referred to
as spit hoods. There's been so many discussions about these
(13:55):
spit shields. You've bought one in for me, and I've
got to tell you it does not look any anything
like what I would expect one of these to look like.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
It is mesh.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
There's a little bit of plastic obviously preventing somebody from
being able to spit on an officer if they are
indeed in custody. Is it all right for me to
post a photo of this up online for our listeners
to see.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Look, yes, I don't see why we can't do that.
I just think it was important for your listeners.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now, it's not a very very good tool for radio.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I get that, but it's not what has been represented
the media previously. It is a tool that we use.
It's really important to protect our police. But it is
not it's opaque, it's clear, it's breathable. We won't use
it if someone's highly intoxicated and at risk of vomiting.
And it does prevent spitting and mitigates biting as well
(14:49):
to an extent. So it's a tool that's at this
point in time we will continue to use and it's
important for our officers to protect them because although we
can wear goggles and master ourselves, even though we've done that,
spittle can still go past that and down into someone's
eyes or mouth, and that has happened on multiple occasions.
(15:10):
Despite the fact, we'll take mitigation toward our offices getting
harmed as well.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
As I say, it looks nothing like what most people
would expect in my opinion, so we will make sure
that we post a photo up on the socials for
our listeners to be able to see that. Assistant Commissioner
Travis Wurst, we really appreciate your time. As always, thank
you very much for coming in and speaking with us
this morning.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Thank you, thank you,
Now there is quite a bit happening around the place
as we know at this point in time, and joining
me in the studio as he does most Wednesday mornings
is indeed Travis wis the Assistant Commissioner of the Greater
Darwin Region and Road Safety in Support within the Northern
Territory Police. Good morning to your assistant commissioner.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning Katie, Good morning to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Now, first off, this morning, we do know, in what
is an incredibly terribly tragic situation, that investigations are underway
into the death of a toddler at a rural childcare
center in Humpty Dew. At this point in time, is
there much that you can tell us in terms of
that investigation other.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Than it been an absolute tragedy for the family and
those exposed to this particular event. Fortunately, that young person
of child passed away. The matter is currently being investigative
investigated by our detectives on behalf of the coroner. Unfortunately,
there's not a great deal more than I can say
other than at this stage the work is still underway
(01:02):
in relation to the determined cause of death, but it
hopefully will be non suspicious.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
And I've no doubt that when we do have some
further detail, we'll be able to provide that to our listeners. Now,
Assistant Commissioner, I do want to ask you about well,
an attempted sexual assault that occurred at Casarina. Now, the
Northern Territory Police have charged demand as I understand it,
with attempted sexual assault after an incident at the shopping
(01:28):
center in Casarina on Friday last week. Now, the twenty
two year old has been arrested or was arrested by
police shortly after being confronted by a member of the
public and has since been charged with attempted sexual assault,
aggravated assault as well as unlawful stalking. As I understand it,
(01:49):
he's been reminded to appear in the Darwin Local Court
until the twenty fifth of October. Now, Assistant Commissioner, some
in the community asking why was this informa you know,
not sort of made clear to the public on Friday
when it happened in terms of that community safety.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
So for your listeners, the first element to this is
the fact that this is extremely serious matter that occurred
at that location. It was reported to police and almost
immediately that person was taken to police custody. We had
police on the scene within moments of it actually been reported,
So there was a member of the public as also
(02:32):
instrumental in alerting police to who that person wasn't taking
that person to custody. So for this particular instance, we
thank the community for their support in making sure that
person was apprehended that immediately took that concern, that that
threat away from that particular environment. The aspect around releasing
(02:53):
this information into the community. So there are two parts
to this. One is the sensitivity and the need to
protect the victim in this particular matter. But the other
element of this is, and I've done significant digging in
relation to why there wasn't some information there allbeit potential
(03:14):
but particularly scant detail to say we'd take some of
the custody.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
It's in essence an.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Oversight on behalf of our agency to not get that
information released. It was nothing more than an oversight and
a communication breakdown about getting that information to where it
needed to go to be released to the public. No more,
no less. We accept that we could have done better
in that space. All the people who were involved in
have all been spoken to and will make sure that
(03:43):
we do better in the future. It was just simply
an oversight. The public deserve to know, and we'll do
that in a particular way so that all those sensitivities
are managed and the public is kept informed about those
sorts of matters.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Because it is like it is a really difficult juggle
I would imagine for the police in the sense that
you want to make sure that the victim is protected
in every way that she possibly can be, but you
also want to make sure that no other person, you know,
is put in a dangerous situation. I understand that that
offender has been taken, you know, taken away very quickly
(04:18):
and apprehended very quickly. But I know myself, I frequent
the shopping center very regularly. I know that young you know,
I like this so often. My daughter's friends are these
young girls at the center very often, And you don't
want it to be a situation where somebody could potentially then.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Be put in any kind of harm.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I agree entirely.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And unfortunately, there are a very very small proportion of
our population that don't adhere to norms within our society,
and they do things like that that require the full
force of the law to be applied, As was the
case in this instance, that person's on raman. That takes
that person out of circulation, so to speak, and that
(05:00):
gives the community some solace in relation to the safety
that is ensured by having this person behind bars.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
But so from this point on it does sound as
though it is the intention of the Northern Territory Police
to make sure that the public are aware. We don't
need all the detail, but that we are aware if
there is a threas or if there is a situation
like this unfold.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
We always do.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
There has been the odd occasion in the past where
it's been focused upon, but it's our intention to ensure
that the media, through the media, sorry that the public
are informed. Public are an important they're our stakeholder if effectively,
we the police police the community and we're there to
support the community. So we need to be able to
make sure that they are fully informed. And on this occasion,
(05:44):
it didn't quite occur the way we would have hoped.
As I've said, managing the sensitivities around this particular matter
against that need to inform the public.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
We need to balance the two.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Now, Assistant Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Unfortunately, we've had a few calls on messages come through
over recent days about different incidents occurring at Casuarina. We
did have somebody get in contact with us and say
that a security guard had been assaulted at kmart, But
do you have at this point in time, do you
sort of have any information on that.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So I was aware of that particular question, and we've
done significant digging and haven't unearthed anything in the recent
past at that particular location. I do know that there
was an incident that involved a number of young people
that sort of started in the center and moved all
the way through the center and out the other side
toward the bus interchange.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Security guard was assaulted.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
In that particular circumstance, there was a couple of young
people who were assaulted by a group as a consequence
of that. I can inform your listeners that there were
seven young people involved. One was under the age of
criminal responsibility. Six others were all arrested under the age
of sixteen. We had two of those remarded in custom,
(07:00):
the one was released to be diverted using the youth
diversion provisions, and three others were granted bail.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
So was that like a fight or an assault that
it occurred, No.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It was it was a targeted attack on a young
person within the facility where some of his personal belongings
were taken from him, a robbery in essence. Is he
okay well physically yes, He's obviously been cared for by
family and his school is aware of the circumstances and
providing him additional support as well.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
So what day did that happen? That was over the weekend?
Was it?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I think it was Friday? Lass work?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Okay, So it sounds like it wasn't a good day
out there on Friday. Is there like at this point
in time, are there additional resources or are they additional
police sort of patrolling the Casuarina area to you know,
to try to calm things down to some degree.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So the response that's been developed and this was being
worked on last week is not one that is just
police centric. Young people who should be at school need
to be engaged and taken back into the education space. Yeah,
there is some public safety aspects that require a policing response.
Territory families and the Youth Outreach Engagement Team are involved
(08:17):
as well. We're engaging with casual and a Square security
to make sure we've got coordination. There are other security
service providers that are also being brought into the space,
so it's not just within the facility itself, it's all
the public spaces outside of CASU in a square that
we're placing some focus around as well.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Alcohol is a key.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Driver of the harm and the any social behavior that's
caused there, so we're doing our best to manage that
as well. We've got to be careful here. We focus
heavily on that area. We cause displacement, so we're still
focusing heavily on return to country for those that are
living rough and they need to get out of their circumstance.
We're still managing to return about one hundred people or
so a week into from Darwin and back into their
(09:03):
community environments, which is great. But people are still continuing
to come back into Darla as well, so it's a
constant management process. We've got the Territory Community Safety Coordination
Center that's sitting at the heart of this, that's working
closely with my team around making sure that all of
our efforts are well coordinated and we're actually maximizing the
(09:25):
small finite resource pool that we all have to be
able to put them in the right places at the
right time, so I.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Mean one hundred people a week back to community. It's
quite a large volume of people, isn't.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It's been as high as one hundred and ninety and
give or take. But it's still the collective effort across
that whole government and NGO group to be able to
get those people home. It's an ongoing effort that won't stop,
and it's focusing on people who are camping in particular locations.
I know in Palmerston there's camps that people are concerned about.
(09:55):
Regularly we go in dismantle those and turn those people
to a better living scenario, whether they be home or
somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Some of the people, unfortunately still just choose to live rough.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Now. I know that, you know, I know that you
obviously look after the Greater Darwin region. But one area
at the moment that does seem to be having some
real issues and it has I guess for a little
while is the pepper Manati community. Now, I understand the
Commissioner visited the community yesterday and again I say, I
know that, I know it's not you know, you are
(10:26):
Greater Darwin, but I would imagine that sometimes some of
these issues not only occur in the community, but flow
on to areas like Darwin. How are things going in
Peppy right now? And did that visit from the Commissioner help.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So there was obviously an incident that occurred the night
prior out at Peerpermnati that required a police response. As
a consequence of that response to family tensions in the community,
the police were there was some targeted activity towards the
police from the community. Police withdrew that our response was
to provide additional resource in the community that included some
(11:01):
tactical response staff, some investigators as well as some other
frontline resources. The Commissioner also went out and visited the community,
spoke to obviously the police who were on the ground,
as well as some of the community members. We're providing
an ongoing supportive response to that community as well as
investigating the criminal activity that occurred. Yes, there is some
(11:22):
flow and effect into Greater Dalen from time to time.
We know from past displacement activity that some of that
has moved into Dalen. We're monitoring that there's constant flows
of information from that West Daily region into our team
in Darwen so that we can actually manage some of
what occurs if people were to come into town. I mean,
(11:43):
I still ask and I know that people are taking
extra steps to manage some of their vehicles at the moment.
I have friends who own older model highlights or land
cruises and they're actually disabling their cars or putting steering
locks on. Now, I know that's bottom of the cliff stuff,
but there are the steps that people need to take
at the moment because there are a group of people
(12:06):
that are able to target those vehicles easily easy to
get into and unfortunately easy to start.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
So we saw a couple of them stolen earlier in
the week or on the weekend as well, didn't we out.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
From the rural area.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Yeah, there was one in town particularly, and there was
a couple in the rural area. The one in town
was located when three people were arrested. The fourteen year
old was driving and there was two twenty year old
females in that car. A coordinated effort from all of
our frontline resources managed to bring that vehicle under control
using tiderflation devices and those people were arrested. The other
(12:41):
vehicles have since been recovered, one in the rural area
and two others out at a location in the West
Daily area. There was another vehicle style from Bachelor as
well that was also recovered out of that way.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So that vehicle theft is still a bit of an issue.
But as you've said, if you've got an older model vehicle, unfortunately,
this is the point we're at at the moment where
you do need to take those extra measures to try
to make sure that it's not getting taken.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Look, I wish that I didn't have to pass that
messaging onto the community, but realistically, please I ask if
you've got you've got the means to be able to
disable your car and or buy a steering lock. You
can still get them from the super cheaps and those
sorts of places. There are another tool to prevent your
vehicle hopefully being stolen. I do know there was a
(13:28):
car style and didn't have a steering lock on it.
The car didn't get very far. There was some damage caused,
but at least that vehicle has been recovered.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Wow. Yeah, now, Assistant Commissioner, we will keep it brief
because I've got the federal Minister on the line at
the moment, but I do want to ask, because you
did you brought one in for me? You brought one
of the spit shields in because you and I have
spoken about these on numerous occasions, they've been referred to
as spit hoods. There's been so many discussions about these
(13:55):
spit shields. You've bought one in for me, and I've
got to tell you it does not look any anything
like what I would expect one of these to look like.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
It is mesh.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
There's a little bit of plastic obviously preventing somebody from
being able to spit on an officer if they are
indeed in custody. Is it all right for me to
post a photo of this up online for our listeners
to see.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Look, yes, I don't see why we can't do that.
I just think it was important for your listeners.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now, it's not a very very good tool for radio.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
I get that, but it's not what has been represented
the media previously. It is a tool that we use.
It's really important to protect our police. But it is
not it's opaque, it's clear, it's breathable. We won't use
it if someone's highly intoxicated and at risk of vomiting.
And it does prevent spitting and mitigates biting as well
(14:49):
to an extent. So it's a tool that's at this
point in time we will continue to use and it's
important for our officers to protect them because although we
can wear goggles and master ourselves, even though we've done that,
spittle can still go past that and down into someone's
eyes or mouth, and that has happened on multiple occasions.
(15:10):
Despite the fact, we'll take mitigation toward our offices getting
harmed as well.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
As I say, it looks nothing like what most people
would expect in my opinion, so we will make sure
that we post a photo up on the socials for
our listeners to be able to see that. Assistant Commissioner
Travis Wurst, we really appreciate your time. As always, thank
you very much for coming in and speaking with us
this morning.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Thank you, thank you,
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